![]() ![]() ‘Lucy has never been a Communist, not now and never will be.'”Īccording to their daughter, Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill - and as depicted in the film “Being the Ricardos” - her father told the audience he had made some calls and that someone was still on the line. The papers have been full of it all day.’ He had a little typed speech in his hand, but at this point, he tucked it into his pocket. Ball remembered him saying, “‘I want to talk to you about something serious, something very serious. “A doctor stood by because, as Vivian said later, ‘I think if Lucy had heard one boo from that audience she’d have collapsed.” Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball on the set of “I Love Lucy”/Getty ImagesĪrnaz warmed up the audience as he always did, saying in his “usual breezy way” that they were glad to be back. “I stood waiting for my cue with a face white as chalk,” she recalled. ![]() Learning that she was officially cleared meant they could go on with the show that night - but what terrified her was facing an audience packed with reporters and curiosity seekers. Jackson, chairman of the House on Un-American Activities Committee called a press conference in his Hollywood hotel room and cleared me completely.”įrom Lucille Ball to ‘Big Little Lies’ Ladies: 16 Biggest Style Icons in TV Series History (Photos)Īrnaz brought Ball the news of Jackson’s statement to her dressing room. I would’ve spoken to America except at six o’clock that evening, representative Donald L. ‘If you want, you can cancel the show we plan for tonight, take the full half-hour of our TV time and explain to the public in any way you like what this nonsense is all about.’ I burst into tears and thanked him. Alfred Lyons, the board and chairman of Philip Morris, phoned me and said, ‘Lucy, I want to ask you one yes-or-no question: are you a Communist?’ ‘No,’ I said. In the afternoon, I went through hours of comedy rehearsal, white-faced and with a devastating headache. “I sat under the hairdryer in pin curls as usual and did my nails, my hands shook. Two hours later, New Yorkers read in their five o’clock evening papers, ‘America’s most beloved comedian is a Communist.'” “The Herald-Express had a 3-inch headline ‘Lucille Ball Named Red. Reporters were everywhere,” Ball remembered. “At the Desilu Studios, 25 miles away, everything was pandemonium. Arnaz said firmly that Ball had no statement to make and then slipped out the back door to head to the studio. The day they had planned to film the first show of the fall season, Ball and Arnaz woke to find police reporters from the Los Angeles Herald-Express standing outside near their orchard. Now it was a matter of setting the record straight with her devoted fans. That’s what he’s paid for, but he might at least have been accurate.” Los Angeles Herald-Express “He had heard that the charge against me was going to be publicized in a magazine. “I don’t blame Walter Winchell,” Ball said. ![]() “‘Honey,’ he said, seriously, ‘you’re in trouble.'”Īnd then Walter Winchell’s story hit. “Do you believe that about Imogene?” she asked, it never having crossed her mind that she was the “redheaded television comedian” Winchell was talking about.īall wrote in her autobiography about that conversation with her husband: “He said as if scolding a small child, ‘He’s not talking about Coca! He means you!’ ‘Me?’ I said.” Desi said he was heading home and a team of people would be there about 1 a.m. He asked if she had been listening to Winchell. It was her husband Desi, who was spending the weekend with poker buddies at their Del Mar beach house. She later said that her first thought was, “Oh my gosh, do they think Imogene Coca is a communist?” referring to the funny lady who was making millions laugh opposite Sid Caesar on “Your Show of Shows.” was listening to Winchell’s radio program. That night in September, Ball - who was home alone with her two children, Lucie and Desi Jr. ![]()
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